Michael de Jong was the rare exception among Canadian provincial finance ministers this budget-planning season. The head of British Columbia’s treasury said his province would record a small surplus for the fiscal year just ended, March 31, joining only resource-rich Saskatchewan among Canadian provinces in the black.

But the headline grabber wasn’t the surplus, it was Mr. de Jong’s plan to introduce a two-tiered tax on the processing of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, which British Columbia is banking on to drive economic growth for the rest of the decade. While the tax plan is not finalized, energy companies said the levy was either too high, or the details too vague. Read More »

Harsh words from Harper. While in Kiev on Saturday to show support for Ukraine’s interim leadership, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned of a return to “the law of the jungle” in international politics and called on the “free world” not to return to business as usual with the Russian government. Mr. Harper has been more vocal than other Western leaders in criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions on Crimea and Ukraine and is spearheading a move to expel Russia from the G8. Read More »

While the debate over lifting a U.S. ban on oil exports to most countries is heating up, Canada has quietly emerged as a lucrative market for crude shipped from its southern neighbor.

In a report issued Tuesday, the International Energy Agency noted Canada now imports about 155,000 barrels a day of light crude oil from the U.S., most of which is bound for a pair of refineries on the Canadian Atlantic coast.

That is up from less than 25,000 barrels a day in 2008, according to FirstEnergy Capital, and the IEA estimates Canada could absorb another 250,000 barrels a day by 2015 before reaching capacity.

The influx of U.S. oil, mostly West Texas Intermediate-priced crude from North Dakota’s Bakken play, has largely displaced Canada’s imports of Brent-priced oil, which industry experts say costs about $10 more a barrel. Read More »

Many of the more than two million Americans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from a mixture of pain and PTSD. But opioid painkillers can be a combustible mix with mental illness because of a heightened addiction risk.

Western Canadian farmers and grain handlers are struggling to move a record crop amid a shortage of railcars that some say is worsened by the surge in the energy industry’s oil shipments by rail.

The number of international students in the U.S. rose to a record last year, fueled by a significant rise in undergraduates from China.

As Canadian home prices grow and construction projects proliferate, particularly in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, some analysts see a property sector teetering at its peak.

Ever since President Barack Obama in June made (in a rather a Delphic fashion) climate change the key condition for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, the arguments over the project have shifted from job creation and groundwater pollution to focus on greenhouse-gas emissions.

Fresh analysis out from energy consultancy IHS Cera says the pipeline, which would carry Canadian tar sands crude from Alberta to Nebraska and eventually to the U.S. Gulf Coast, “will not have any impact on GHG emissions.”

Essentially, IHS concluded, Canadian tar sands will find a way to market either through all-Canadian pipelines or through the increasing use of railcars to ship the heavy oil. “Even if new pipelines lag oil sands growth, rail will fill the gap, as it is doing today,” the consultancy found, echoing the draft conclusions by the U.S. State Department. Read More »

Amid a contentious debate in the U.S. over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, the chief executive of Canada’s second-largest oil producer said his company plans to step up shipments to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico no matter the verdict on the additional artery for Canadian crude.

“I absolutely expect to see increased access to the U.S. Gulf Coast regardless of whether Keystone [XL] is approved or not,” Cenovus Energy Inc.’s CEO, Brian Ferguson, said in an interview.

The U.S. government is expected to make a decision by year’s end on the controversial pipeline project, which would pump 700,000 barrels a day of Albertan oil as far as Nebraska, where it would link to other pipelines bound for the Gulf. Read More »

Canada has lots of oil and gas, but currently no easy way to ship it to Asian markets where demand is growing fastest. Oil companies and the government in Ottawa have come up with a plan to turn Canada’s unspoiled west coast into an escape route for the country’s landlocked energy resources.

However, this and other ambitious plans for oil pipelines heading west may be about to run up against a force almost as immovable as the Rocky Mountains: British Colombia’s powerful environmental groups. As Paul Vieira reports for the WSJ, British Columbia’s provincial government and 57% of residents say they are unwilling to bear the environmental risks of these pipelines and export terminals, fearing oil spills and higher coastal tanker traffic.

There’s a lot of money at stake in this environmental battle. Read More »

About Canada Real Time

Canada Real Time provides insight and analysis into what’s making news in Canada, a country punching above its weight on the world stage thanks to its vast resources and strong banking sector. Drawing on the expertise of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, we take a look at developments in fields ranging from business to politics to culture. You can contact the editors at canadaeditors@dowjones.com